The study of coloration is highly interdisciplinary; CamoLab, at the University of Bristol, consists of a collaborative group of people with diverse skills and research backgrounds who seek to understand defensive coloration in both nature and the human domain, using evolutionary, ecological and psychological principles.

The mechanisms underlying defensive coloration were first outlined by the pioneers of evolutionary theory some 150 years ago. Our goals are:

· to unpack and extend those mechanisms to build a new synthetic framework for understanding biological colour;

· to develop and apply sophisticated cutting-edge technologies to answer fundamental questions about crypsis, masquerade, transparency, and strategies based on conspicuity, such as warning coloration, mimicry and dazzle;

· to uncover the ecological drivers of coloration across nature, from mammals to ferns;

· to use animal coloration as a window to the perception and cognition of different species;

· to develop biologically inspired solutions to human problems. The need by humans and machines to detect, hide, classify, describe and make decisions about complex visual information is increasing dramatically across applications such as surveillance, safety, security, medical and veterinary imaging, and armed conflict.

Work with us! Camo Lab provides the perfect interdisciplinary and collegial environment in which to tackle these challenges. We come from the Animal Behaviour and Sensory Biology and the Evolutionary Biology Groups in Biological Sciences, the Perception Group in Psychological Science and the Visual Information Lab in Engineering. CamoLab is a key component of the Bristol Vision Institute (BVI), one of the University of Bristol’s core “research themes”, spanning human and animal vision, artificial vision systems, visual information processing and the creative arts. The BVI isthe largest interdisciplinary grouping of its type in Europe, and both its structure and breadth are unique worldwide.